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My class was never the best class to begin with. Last year the class was fine, the noise level was tolerable. The teachers liked us and we actually put in effort to do work. We had fun as a class and though there were theft cases and our MSG (Mean subject grade), we managed to turn out alright. The teachers were proud of us and our MSG got a 1.83 if I remembered correctly. We boasted about our achievement of getting the 2nd place in the level. After the year 2009, everything went from top of the mountain to the deepest part of the ocean. Everything went wrong.
2010 started off badly. We were allowed to bring our laptops to help us in our learning. Yes, I specify it is for learning.We had done well last year and the school decided to choose a few classes for the new education program called the "future class “The teachers would use the laptops to teach the students as the pupils are exposed to a wide variety of information that could prove beneficial to one's learning. However, our term 1 grades plunged. We were behind many of the classes we had won in terms of grades last year. We were around the tenth position and about 8 classes had overtaken us. There were only 15 classes so we were below average. It was not a promising sign.
We managed though not intentionally, "pissed off" some of our teachers especially in term 2.First it was our Chinese drama teacher. We had to go a an area known as the "Black box " It is surrounded by black walls and when the lights were off it was completely pitch black. The teacher had arrived late and many of my classmates took advantage to play. They switched off and on in quick succession resulting in some light bulbs to burst. People were running in darkness screaming and it was chaotic. I did not take part in this like few others. We sat on the floor waiting certain doom. We knew the teacher would come. It was hopeless to stop those other classmates. When they started to play, it was almost impossible to stop them without a teacher. So the teacher finally came and the people still did not stop. He was very angry and scolded us; it was not that bad at first. When it was time to greet him farewell for the day, many started to move around, not paying the teacher respect. He blew his top. He was really really furious. The tone and facial expression was all showing his immense anger. We stood there shocked and some were still LAUGHING! I do not know why they were doing it and we stayed there standing for 30 minutes longer. He reported it to our dean and teacher but did the class change. We did not!
Our science teacher had a slight problem pronouncing his words. Many laughed at him but I made effort to control it. Many rumours started about him being a terrible teacher so many did not try to pay attention in class. Therefore, many were clueless and blamed it on the teacher being incompetent. In the lab, many were talking while the teacher was teaching and some were playing. They had no respect for him. After many lessons, he sent some boys out of the class as they were talking. He was actually very nice. He did little scolding and punishment. There was one time where he almost blew his top but he manages to control it. He was quite angry but our class got away with it. Time will only time if we would push his anger to the limit. Sigh...
We also made our Inforcom studies teacher so angry till he refused to teach for that lesson. Once again, we did not respect him, talking in his lesson. What is wrong with us? If we put masking tape on our mouths, will we die from lack of talking? I don't understand.
One of the most major blow out of a teacher occurred yesterday. This time it was our English teacher. Our English teacher was angry at us last year for not answering her questions. Everyone chose to remain quiet and ignored her. She was so fed up that she did not teach for a few days. It was quite bad. Only after a few weeks did she start to teach again. We tried hard to reconcile with her and we did especially when we topped the level for Language arts during the end of year examination. However, this changed for the worse yesterday. She was teaching us on war poetry. We were supposed to do research on some wars to understand why men take up arms. Our class was silent when she asked questions and the lesson moved at snails pace. We did not research and remained silent. She was livid. She said that she had spent a whole night preparing the PowerPoint and she read up to teach us but we did not even try to put effort in any research or show any interest in the lesson. She threw the white board marker on the floor with deadly force. I have never seen a teacher so angry like that. She stormed out for the class. I just wanted to point out the possibility that we were so nervous about the history test on the next lesson that we could have been so preoccupied with our thoughts that we did not show much interest in the lesson. It was not right of us to do that still as we did not show respect or appreciation to the teacher. We were at fault. Once again, another teacher was angry at us.
What is wrong with our class? I think our class is the most problematic. We had angered a lot of teachers to the point where they did not want to teach us anymore. Something is seriously wrong with our attitude. I cannot find an adjective yet to describe it. Maybe more reflections are needed. We really need to sit down and think why so many teachers are angry at us. Is it our attitude or something about us our teachers hate? I just hope that the coming weeks will help cool down the temperature in the classroom.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
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I feel that the problem with our class is that most of us are generally playful and wild. There is always a time to play and always a time to be serious. However, our class just cannot get the hang on it and keep on playing even though it is time to be serious. Similarly, the recent level assembly, we also did not control ourselves and in the end got scolded by Mr Tan.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that we bringing our laptop to school is to blame for our attitude as these already happened on a few occasion last year but it was not so serious as compared to this year. But the laptops still played a minor in affecting the class attitude.
If i remembered correctly, our class MSG dropped a lot during term 3 but we still managed to overcome it and came in second in the level in the EOY. Although we cannot be complacent, I hope that the class attitude will change for the best and our MSG will improve.
Hence, i conclude that it is acceptable to be playful but only at the right time.
Hi Marcus,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that our class is quite playful.Most boys are playful by nature actually.The problem is we do not know when to stop.
I think that actually laptops played a part in pulling down our grades.Maybe it does affect our attitude in learning since some of them just cannot seem to stop the game during class.With their minds focus on the game,I doubt they can fully concentrate.
Perhaps the lack of respect we give to our teacher is one of the main cause of infuriating them.What do you think?
Jonathan
Well,
ReplyDeleteI guess we lack discipline. No. More like we lack the ability to know when to enforce discipline.
And there are just those few ways of teaching a class like ours discipline. But they're not working. Unless the CMC can somehow instill discipline in the class there's no way this is going to change. Until people learn that the laptops are for, as you said, learning, and not hunting mice, there is not going to be any peace in this class.
If the CMC really wants to enforce discipline, the only way is to be serious and -- I hate to admit it -- fearsome, in some ways. But they're slacking, our monitor is setting a world class example for us -- of a bad student. Our chairman has pretty much given up (unless he has changed), the rest of the CMC consist of some people who fall into the categories of classmates I criticised on my blog. Is there still hope? Perhaps.
Apart from this post, I wanted to tell you: Your comment on my blog was a really interesting argument and believe it or not I actually thought about it (usually my mindsets about people are stubborn and set for good). Well, I'm glad you have such a positive attitude towards them. Perhaps I should try getting one too.
J
Dear Justin,
ReplyDeleteI feel that since you have so much energy to criticize so many people on your blog, perhaps you should put that time and energy to better use by actually helping them to change or to change your own mindset. If you feel that the CMC is not doing its job well, why don't you join the CMC?
I feel that we should not judge people. Yes, no one on Earth is entitled to judge another person. No one is perfect, everyone has their flaws. What we can actually do is to help to correct each others flaws.
The world is not dangerous because of the dangerous people who live in it, but because of those who sit at the side and do nothing. If all you can do is blame the CMC and other classmates, I don't think your statements should be taken seriously.
I know this comment might sound insulting, but it is in no way supposed to offend anyone. There are still many people in class who condemn others, including me. Therefore, I hope this comment does not inspire you to criticize yet more people on your blog, but help you to make a change for the better to help our class. Try helping, not putting people down for a change.
PS. If I sound like I am judging a person, please forgive me.